Aviation Forum / General / Aviation / November 2006

Good question.  There must be back-of-seat mounts, but I can't seem to
find any for sale.  But here's an article on shooting from a car that
might be helpful:

http://www.videomaker.com/article/1799/

Kev

Forget the tripod.  Go to the store and get a sponge or two.  The camera
sits on the sponge on top of the glareshield.  Then take elastic straps
and attach a ring terminal to both ends.  Attach ring terminals to
convenient sheet metal screws on the glareshield.  My 182 had an
avionics access panel that I used.  The sponge keeps the camera from
vibrating.  The easiest video cameras to use have the flip open screen.
 Set the camera to the scenery mode so it won't focus on the
windshield.  I always had just a little bit of the engine cowl in the
lower part of the screen for reference.  If you use a Sony camera you
can plug a cord from the intercom directly into the mic in jack, no
special cords needed.  The only downside to audio is you either get
constant engine drone or no engine drone and communications.

Check out this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=fholbert

randall g =%^)>  PPASEL+Night  1974 Cardinal RG
http://www.telemark.net/randallg
Lots of aerial photographs of British Columbia at:
http://www.telemark.net/randallg/photos.htm
Vancouver's famous Kat Kam: http://www.katkam.ca

I've been successful in using a tripod in my Warrior. I just filmed
some night ops two nights ago successfully. What I do is set up the
tripod to have two shortened legs and one long leg. I put the two
shorter legs against the back seat's bend and adjust the long leg to
the floor to get a  somewhat level position. I secure the back two with
the lap belt and use a bungee to secure the front attaching it to a bar
under one of the front seats.

Unless you're doing aerobatics, it will stay put. Actually, it should
stay put even in aerobatics given a tight enough bungee/seatbelt setup.

I've had no problems with the focus using a common Sony DCR-TRV18
MiniDV camcorder. I find that I don't have to put it on the Focus on
Infinity setting to get both the panel and outside in focus but you can
try it if you think it will help.

A couple of things I learned through trial and error:
1) put the camera as close to the headliner as possible to get a good
view of the outside. Anything lower will get you a frame full of panel.
2) unless you want to listen to the engine drone, I'd suggest plugging
the back headphone jack into the audio-in jack. Just make sure to get a
good sound level through adjustment of the passenger volume in the
intercom (if you can). Otherwise you can easily end up with distorted
audio (although it does give it an "antique" flavor...or maybe a New
York City Subway announcement flavor--it's a fine line)

I'm sure there is the "proper" way according to audio/video philes but
this worked for me.

Marco